Chinese funded trade centre closer to reality

A MOU, a potential location and a new taskforce has Wagga Wagga city council hopeful the Chinese funded trade centre is getting closer to reality.

"It's a project we are not taking lightly, and it's a project we'd like to see through to the finish" says Deputy Mayor of Wagga Andrew Negline.

If it goes ahead the project will see the establishment of a trade centre in Wagga, which will exhibit Chinese products not only to the Riverina community but the whole of Australia.

"What that means in terms of products we physically don't know but they tell us it will be a range of products from the Shenzhen province," explains Mr Negline.

The council has now signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Chinese investors.

"The MOU is the next big step but we now need to get some meat on the bones and get some commercial reality to this project."

Andrew Negline concedes that they are still not really sure what they are in for and so the Mayor Rod Kendall has formed a taskforce with the goal to understand what the commercial and social impacts will be for Wagga and the region.

"The taskforce has been extended to utilise local businesses, those who are currently dealing with China, as they have some great insight into how we should deal with China"

"And as you can imagine the cultural differences are part of the challenge here."

It has to be asked however, why would the Chinese investors choose Wagga as a base for a project like this, when there are more obvious centres like Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra?

Andrew Negline says the discussions commenced at a State level.

"The State government has been significant in promoting our region as an option, other regions were included in those discussions, but at the end of the day the Chinese investors like what they've seen, they've liked the community, they have a good feel about Wagga Wagga and they want to take it to the next level."

An industrial site on Copland street has been suggested to the investors as a good location for the proposed trade centre.

"We think that ticks all the boxes for them, we'd like to see them put a deposit on the land so we know we've got something to work with, but at this stage that's the site they're interested in," explains Mr Negline.

"It's got access to the airport, it's also got access to the city, they can showcase their wares but also they're talking about some entertainment, such as five star hotel rooms where people can fly in and stay," he expands.

Deputy Mayor Andrew Negline says as 2013 kicks off the council are now really pushing for this project to be brought to reality as soon as possible.